Hello everyone, I've been lurking here for a long time, and have only recently started actively posting (prompted by Meola's recent color essay).

By way of introduction, here is a first image, from 2009. The image was taken near Teangue, Skye, on the next to last day of a trip my wife and I made to Scotland that year. The sun was setting, but we had a bit of time for some last minute exploration. I was busy taking close-up shots of rocks and water, with my back toward the water where my wife was standing (I was in my usual crouched position, glaring starry-eyed at the compositional marvels on the exposed beach, and - also, as usual ;-) - "oblivious" to what I was really searching for ;-) I finally stood up to give my knees a rest, and while stretching my back swung around to look for my wife. What I saw is what you saw reproduced in the photograph above, and is among my top three favorite images from our entire trip. A gentle reminder to me (that I just as frequently forget as remember, of course) to look up once in a while ;-)

I second (or is it third?;-) that! Extraordinary land, wonderful, warm people, great food, and the skies! Achh, the skies! Though I speak English and Russian, neither language has equipped with with the adjectives to describe those preternatural skies! My wife and I would go back in a heartbeat given the chance.

Extraordinary land, wonderful, warm people, great food, and the skies! Achh, the skies! Though I speak English and Russian, neither language has equipped with with the adjectives to describe those preternatural skies!

And, great Scotch - Talisker. Here is an image taken on the trail to the rock formation known as Old Man of Storr. It stopped raining long enough for the shot. Because of the ever-present cloud cover and intermittent sun, there are many other-worldly sky(e) images that appear then disappear just as fast. Oh yes, did I say abundant fresh Mussels?